“The skipper of the big motor yacht that came in this afternoon says he’s meeting a charter client who’s flying in today.”

“Well, that’s going to come as a big surprise to the folks out at the airport.”

“Yeah,” Stone said. “See you later.” He walked back down to the marina and boarded Expansive. “Hello, below,” he called out.

“Stone, is that you?” Allison’s voice called back.

“Sure is.” He started down the companionway.

“I’m not feeling very well,” she called out. “Would you mind coming back later this evening?”

Stone stopped halfway down the steps.

“Stone?”

“I have to talk to you right now,” he said and started down again.

“Please don’t!” she cried, but he was already in the saloon. There were half a dozen packed duffels piled near the steps, and Allison had a safe open behind the navigation station. “Dammit,” she said, “are you deaf?”

“What time are you planning to leave?” he asked.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” she replied, closing the safe and putting some papers into her late husband’s briefcase.

“What time?” he asked again.

She began going through the drawers next to the chart table, apparently looking for something.

Stone walked into the aft cabin and looked around. He opened a closet door and found only a few things hanging there, along with a lot of empty hangers. He walked back into the saloon. “What time are you leaving?” he asked a third time.

She looked at him for a long time without expression. “Sometime after midnight,” she said finally.

Chapter
39

Stone sat down on the sofa opposite the chart table. “You can’t do it,” he said. “You know the penalty if you’re caught running. You’ll be judged guilty without even the formality of a trial, and they’ll hang you.”

“They’re going to hang me anyway,” she said.

“Not if I have anything to say about it.”

“Stone,” she said. “Can’t you see the way this is headed? They’ve stacked the deck against me in every possible way. The jury will probably be stacked against me, too. Sutherland wants my hide on his wall, and he’s going to get his way.”

“Allison, listen to me. We’ve got a shot at an acquittal, really we have.”

“And if I’m not acquitted?”

“Then we turn on the pressure on the prime minister. Sutherland has already heard from both Connecticut senators and God knows who else. If they try to hang an American citizen under these circumstances, the world will fall on them. The pressure on the prime minister will be unbearable; he’ll have to cave in.”

“These people can do whatever the hell they want,” she said. “They’re in this insular little world of theirs, and nobody has ever cared about what went on here.”